AdolfOliverPanties:Awesome. I just started "Good Omens" and am only about a chapter in. Sounds like I have a helluva read in front of me.

You do. Good Omens is one of those books you keep coming back to and discover something new. Every Easter, I read Good Omens and Lamb.

kmmontandon:Is it bad that I've got that book almost entirely memorized, including (or, rather, especially) the footnotes?

Demons like Ligur and Hastur wouldn't understand. They'd never have thought up Welsh language television, for example. Or value-added tax. Or Manchester. He'd been particularly pleased with Manchester.

Good Omens is a pretty good book, but it's been overhyped by nerds worse than Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I wouldn't even say it's the best book I've read about an apocalypse. It wouldn't even crack my top 10.

I was really put off of his work after he abandoned mocking the fantasy genre to churn out fantacrap but I was really surprised at the ability he showed in the Tiffany Aching series. Then again, I read about drow elves and I vote.

SockMonkeyHolocaust:I was really put off of his work after he abandoned mocking the fantasy genre to churn out fantacrap but I was really surprised at the ability he showed in the Tiffany Aching series. Then again, I read about drow elves and I vote.

He didn't do "fantacrap." He's been writing serious satirical literature for a while now. Nightwatch is a phenomenal piece of political satire.

If you say so but the character of Sam Vimes is incredibly one-dimensional in the books he stars in and hey, time traveling story line where he has to fix the past to return to the future while the author re-uses a large majority of the same jokes he's reused in a number of other books.

You can make the case, and Sherwood Schwartz did, that Gilligan's Island was a microcosm of the UN but it didn't make it good. I'll admit that Night Watch was less of a mess than Pratchett's usual books are, but that has been the exception.

I have to disagree. I wont spoil it for folks who have not read any of the books, but he does go from a bit player to multifaceted major character in short order. Now true, hes a cop, but he becomes so much more..../thats my 2 sausages in a bun from Dibbler

F*cking fantasy nerds. Can't even get their own sh*t togehter. JK Rowlings is by far the UK's most celebrated living author. With or without the lame mass-market "fantasy" qualifier. Whatever. Half of you haven't read Lucky Jim.

bobbette:Good Omens is a pretty good book, but it's been overhyped by nerds worse than Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I wouldn't even say it's the best book I've read about an apocalypse. It wouldn't even crack my top 10.

/Sacred cows make the best hamburger

2/10. If you really wanted to troll, you could point out how unlikely it is that he'll finish another book.

/Article doesn't mention he's already willed Discworld to his daughter to continue when he can't write it anymore.

I'm ashamed to admit this, but I'm trying to slog through "Color of Magic," and I just don't think it's very good. It's not clever or amusing or entertaining. I don't see what the attraction is. Is there a better Discworld book I should be reading?

Prank Call of Cthulhu:I'm ashamed to admit this, but I'm trying to slog through "Color of Magic," and I just don't think it's very good. It's not clever or amusing or entertaining. I don't see what the attraction is. Is there a better Discworld book I should be reading?

Yes, nearly all of them. Color of Magic and Light fantastic are not the best to start on really. Try Weird Sisters or Guards Guards. Of course I'm biased as they are my two favorites.

Prank Call of Cthulhu:I'm ashamed to admit this, but I'm trying to slog through "Color of Magic," and I just don't think it's very good. It's not clever or amusing or entertaining. I don't see what the attraction is. Is there a better Discworld book I should be reading?

If you are trying to get into Discworld, read Guards Guards! It's the start of the Nightwatch sub-series and in my opinion the best of the books to start the different sub-series. The other early books are not as good. Guards Guards! is where Terry Pratchett starts to hit his stride.

I loved American Gods and sort of tolerated Anansi Boys, but most of the descriptions I've seen of Terry Pratchett's books make them look overly focused on the fantasy. I might have to pick up a copy of Good Omens, if all the reviews were misstating things.

bobbette:Good Omens is a pretty good book, but it's been overhyped by nerds worse than Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I wouldn't even say it's the best book I've read about an apocalypse. It wouldn't even crack my top 10.

/Sacred cows make the best hamburger

What books about the apocalypse would you recommend? It's looking to be a long cold winter, and I need some reading material.

deaccessioned:bobbette: Good Omens is a pretty good book, but it's been overhyped by nerds worse than Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I wouldn't even say it's the best book I've read about an apocalypse. It wouldn't even crack my top 10.

/Sacred cows make the best hamburger

What books about the apocalypse would you recommend? It's looking to be a long cold winter, and I need some reading material.

Seriously, I'm going to miss him when he goes - I'm a huge fan of Pratchett.

greentea1985:Prank Call of Cthulhu: I'm ashamed to admit this, but I'm trying to slog through "Color of Magic," and I just don't think it's very good. It's not clever or amusing or entertaining. I don't see what the attraction is. Is there a better Discworld book I should be reading?

If you are trying to get into Discworld, read Guards Guards! It's the start of the Nightwatch sub-series and in my opinion the best of the books to start the different sub-series. The other early books are not as good. Guards Guards! is where Terry Pratchett starts to hit his stride.

Can't emphasize that choice enough - you'll enjoy the earlier books more once you read the later books, starting with Guards Guards!

baka-san:Whoatherebabie: Yes, nearly all of them. Color of Magic and Light fantastic are not the best to start on really.

Unless, like me, you like to see how the world evolves...

(starred with Lords and Ladies)

I've read the whole series in the order they were published and loved them all, so I did start with Color of Magic & Light Fantastic. For some reason many people do get stuck trying to start with those.

Love me some Granny & Vimes, I can't even remember how may times I've read those books.

I am so relieved his Alzheimers is not progressing at the rate they expected. A world without Pterry seems like a bleak prospect.Love Good Omens, one of the few books I could actually tolerate listening to in the car as well. Normally I can't stand audio books,but GO just can't go wrong with me.

HotWingAgenda:I loved American Gods and sort of tolerated Anansi Boys, but most of the descriptions I've seen of Terry Pratchett's books make them look overly focused on the fantasy. I might have to pick up a copy of Good Omens, if all the reviews were misstating things.

Diskworld books are satire and societal commentary dressed up as fantasy. Don't worry about the fantasy label -- it's just the setting, and it makes everything work.

deaccessioned:bobbette: Good Omens is a pretty good book, but it's been overhyped by nerds worse than Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I wouldn't even say it's the best book I've read about an apocalypse. It wouldn't even crack my top 10.

/Sacred cows make the best hamburger

What books about the apocalypse would you recommend? It's looking to be a long cold winter, and I need some reading material.

To start off with... Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx & Crake, World War Z by Max Brooks, Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, and Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland. I think you'd also probably like Y: The Last Man.

I'm pretty much a diehard Anglophile, but other than Good Omens I haven't been able to get into Pratchett's other stuff. It's just so.... goofy. Like every line has to be a joke or a pun. It felt like the literary equivalent of an Adam Sandler movie.

Though before I get flamed I'm going to try again. Probably "Guards, Guards" since everyone is recommending it.

bobbette:deaccessioned: bobbette: Good Omens is a pretty good book, but it's been overhyped by nerds worse than Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I wouldn't even say it's the best book I've read about an apocalypse. It wouldn't even crack my top 10.

/Sacred cows make the best hamburger

What books about the apocalypse would you recommend? It's looking to be a long cold winter, and I need some reading material.

To start off with... Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx & Crake, World War Z by Max Brooks, Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, and Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland. I think you'd also probably like Y: The Last Man.

Seconded on Y: The Last Man. Though I can't say I was happy with the way it ended.

An ex got me into Pratchett, lent me "Guards! Guards!", and I loved it. It's like Monty Python's Flying Circus type british humour in a detective story set in some fantasy place. 3 Great tastes in one.

I was pretty drunk by the time I got halfway through Good Omens, so I'm probably a bad judge of whether it's actually good or not. Incidentally, doing a border crossing from one communist country to another while drunk was probably not one of my finest hours.

Soymilk:So who would be a good actor to play Vimes? William Hurt? Liam Neeson?

Terry himself always wanted the late Pete Postlethwaite. While I agree he would have done a very good job, I've always pictured Alun Armstrong. Not as high profile as Hurt or Neeson, but he does play stubborn, cynical-with-an-ironclad-code-of-honor with the best of them. He can play comedy too, and he just *looks* like he's spent thirty years walking a beat in the Shades.

Prank Call of Cthulhu:I'm ashamed to admit this, but I'm trying to slog through "Color of Magic," and I just don't think it's very good. It's not clever or amusing or entertaining. I don't see what the attraction is. Is there a better Discworld book I should be reading?

I tried starting "in order" and put it away for many years."Going Postal" was a good starting point for me, a bit of Victorian steam punk type tech, and a con-man. No big fantasy wizard plots, but other fantasy themes along with some political stuff.

After that, back tracked to the guards/night watch series, Death series, and finally the witches series.For me "Going Postal" was the perfect book to get hooked on "discworld" as it didn't have a lot of sword and magic stuff. (but still some elements of that).